Dierks Bentley

Dierks Bentley is one of the rare Arizona natives to make it in Music City. He came to Nashville to finish college, working odd jobs while he honed his craft before signing with Capitol Nashville. ‘What Was I Thinkin’’ was his first hit, and some will argue it’s still his best song to date. The country rambler spawned a fashion trend with good-looking girls in little white tank tops popping up all over during the summer of 2003. Now married with kids (Evie, Jordan and Knox), Bentley is known for never making the same record twice. He fuses bluegrass into his brand of country when he can, while relying on lyrics that are often sparse and deeply personal. The one-time ACM Top New Artist kicked off his first headlining tour in 2014. ‘Riser’ is his seventh studio album.

Birthday: November 20, 1975

Top Songs: ‘What Was I Thinkin’,’ ‘Come a Little Closer,’ ‘Home’

Fun Fact: Dierks is actually Bentley's middle name. His real first name is Frederick.

Grammy Awards voters don’t think like ACM and CMA voters. Sales figures and the number of No. 1 singles don’t help an artist or song’s chances at winning a Grammy. In fact, in country music, they often hurt your chances.

Dierks Bentley has been a country staple for over a decade, but how well do you really know the 'I Hold On' hitmaker? This kid from Arizona took the long route to Nashville, and once there, success hardly came easily. Watch to find out what he was like as a kid, how he met his wife and which famous rocker he's friends with.

The nominees for Album of the Year in the 2016 Taste of Country Fan Choice Awards are an interesting mix of young and veteran artists, working in a variety of commercial and more cutting-edge aspects of the format to encompass everything that's great about country music right now.

Welcome back to Taste of Country

It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on .
To keep your personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you.
To activate your account, please confirm your password.
When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites.

Welcome back to Taste of Country

It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing VIP profile. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://tasteofcountry.com using your original account information.